Waspinator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waspinator is the name of several fictional characters from the various Transformers universes.
Contents |
[edit] Beast Wars
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Waspinator | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Predacon |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Beasts Transmetals Basic Vehicles |
| Function | Aerial Attack |
| Motto | “Waspinator tired of being universe's chew toy!” |
| Alternate Modes | Jet Fighter Wasp Transmetal Wasp Technorganic Wasp |
| Series | Beast Wars Transformers: Universe Transformers: Timelines |
| Voiced by | Scott McNeil (English) Kenzo Kato (Japanese) |
Waspinator is best remembered for being the comedic relief: getting destroyed or demolished in almost every episode of Beast Wars, yet returning in almost perfect condition in the very next episode. He is also dim-witted, talks in a broken third-person speech pattern, often referring to other characters, except Megatron, Optimus Primal, and himself, by names that reflected their transformation modes instead of their true names (example: referring to Silverbolt as "Doggy-Bot") and spent most of the series as an underdog, causing him to take constant abuse from Maximal and Predacon alike (thus summing up Waspinator's most well-known line "Why universe hate Waspinator?!") making him one of the more fan-favorite characters on the show. His beast mode is a wasp and his name is based on The Terminator. [1]
Waspinator dispays an ability to put himself back together and move even when in pieces - and he needs it. He's not so much a bad fighter as he is incredibly unlucky, being considered highly expendable by Megatron and most of the other Predacons too. He's been proven to be disloyal when he thinks he can get away with it, but most of the time he follows Megatron's orders and gets blown to pieces in the process - and usually, that was Megatron's plan.
Some of the abuse he sustains includes being possessed by Starscream's spark, receiving severe torture from Rattrap including a "robo-noogie", being blasted to pieces by a stasis pod ("Wazzzpinator flying along, minding own business, and BAM!, get whole stasis pod up the kazoodie!"), sliced to shreds by Transmetal II Dinobot, and his final classic rebellion which resulted in him surviving the Beast Wars. In the Beast Wars TV show, Waspinator's weapons were two grenade launching pistols and optical lasers that were only used in the first and fourth episodes.
In the final episode, Waspinator had enough of being a Predacon since evil people get blown up. Before he quit, he gave a speech,"Wazzpinator sick of being evil, sick of being Predacon! Wazzpinator especially sick of GETTING BLOWN TO SCRAP ALL THE TIME!!! Sooo, Wazzpinator quit! As of now, which means Ant-bot and two-heads can just pucker their mandibles, and plant BIIG wet juicy one right here, on Wazzpinator's ...BIG...FAT...STRIPEY..." at which point he is blown apart by Inferno and Quickstrike.
Waspinator's toy was recolored as the Predacon Buzz Saw, a character who only appeared in the comic series. Waspinator came with two different heads, a robotic and mutant head, but the television series only ever depicted him with the mutant head. Buzz Saw was depicted in the comics with the robot head. [2]
Although a transmetal version of Waspinator was made in the toy line, Waspinator remained in his original form in the television series from first episode to last (the only one of the original five Predacons to do so). There was also a "Fox Kids" repaint of his original form, which was in new colors, and one of his transmetal form which had the colors of Buzz Saw.
In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was one of the toys selected for the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary toyline, repainted in more show-accurate colors. He came packaged with one of the six pieces used to make the Transmutate toy and a DVD with the episode Possession on it.
[edit] Transformers: Timelines
The Predacon General now known as Megatron gathered a crew of like-minded individuals. While Waspinator and Terrorsaur stole a ship, Megatron, Dinobot and Scorponok stole the Golden Disk artifact, battling the guards and destroying one, disabling a second, and leaving a third to commandeer a ship to pursue them. Waspinator would lose a contest to name the ship with Terrorsaur, christening it the Darkside (Waspinator's choice being "Buzzerbot"). Picking up the others, they fled and were pursued by two ships: one of which was the Axalon commanded by Optimus Primal, the other the Chromia 10 piloted by Airazor. With a little help from Laserbeak and Buzzsaw (secretly sent by Divebomb to ensure Megatron's plan to change history succeeded) they destroyed one of their pursuers, and the newly christened Darkside fled into Transwarp space, with the Axalon in pursuit - thus beginning the Beast Wars.
[edit] Season One
Waspinator was a follower of the Predacon criminal Megatron, joining him on his raid of the Golden Disk artifact from the Maximals and being on the Darkside when it was chased through Transwarp Space by the Axalon and crashed on prehistoric Earth. High energon levels threatened to destroy the crew unless they adopted organic alternate modes, and Waspinator took the form of a wasp ("Beast Wars Part 1").
Waspinator's body was blasted apart, crushed or disassembled numerous times throughout the series (“Oh sure...don't mind Waspinator; Waspinator just lie here and suffer... drag himself to CR tank...”). Even his fellow Predacons had little respect for Waspinator, often letting him take the shots in battles. Despite the fact that Waspinator never actually led or participated in a rebellion against Megatron, he was not loyal to the Predacon tyrant but merely too cowed and frightened of Megatron to overthrow him, a sentiment which only got worse as Megatron grew more powerful during the series and Waspinator did not. This can be best observed during the first season when Waspinator was shown in a private conversation to himself reveals his desire to, like most Predacons, overthrow Megatron and establish himself as leader.
Outside of Optimus Primal and Megatron, he had a tendency to address his comrades and enemies by nicknames that described their personas or transformation modes, such as calling Dinobot "Lizard-Bot" and Inferno "Ant-Bot". Interestingly, when Megatron was reconfigured into the form of a dragon, Waspinator began to call him "Dragon-Bot", despite having always referred to him as Megatron in the past.
In the first season, he was often partnered with Terrorsaur and proved himself to be a capable aerial combatant. However, Waspinator had few notable roles other than acting as Megatron's aerial muscle. But he did get a successful victory when he stole the Axalon's Energon shielding system in "Call of the Wild". During the episode "Possession", Waspinator was possessed by the ghost of the ancient Decepticon Starscream. Starscream betrayed Megatron with the help of Blackarachnia and managed to capture the Axalon from the Maximals, but his own ego and a betrayal in turn by Blackarachnia saw him defeated. In another bizarre incident, he was severely damaged by a reprogrammed Rhinox, who had developed his own ideas about leading the Predacons. As usual Waspinator survived but this time he had been temporarily damaged mentally, referring to himself as the original Insecticon Shrapnel, and talking with his speech impediment. In the same scene he refers to himself as Wonko The Sane, which is in turn a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as to a prominent Transformers fan who used that name as his online handle. This episode of insanity lasted until an annoyed Cheetor shot him down and Waspinator was repaired (with his last insane line being part of the original transformers theme song "more than meets the eye").
In "Before the Storm", Waspinator was the first to discover that Tarantulas was going to leave, disobeying Megatron. But Waspinator was blown to pieces by Tarantulas before he could inform Megatron (who still found out with his security cameras). In the season finale, he fought with Rattrap in a fist duel, but he lost and left dizzy.
[edit] Season Two
When the Earth was hit by a quantum surge from the Vok's destroyed planet killer weapon, it reformatted several Maximals and Predacons into transmetal forms. Waspinator was unaltered. It is theorized by fans that, because he fell into a CR Tank as the wave passed, he was shielded from its effects.
In a bold and surprising move, he attempted to steal the Golden Disks from Megatron, only to be beaten to it (and subsequently scrapped) by Dinobot and the Darkside's security systems. This was his second moment of hidden disloyalty. In the same episode, it was revealed that he was the first to realize that the planet the Beast Wars was being waged on was really Earth after all, suggesting that he may not have been quite as dumb as he often appeared to be.
Waspinator finally got his time for glory, when he shot Silverbolt by the back, which made him crash into Dinobot knocking both of them out.
Inferno: You serve the Royalty well, Waspinator!
Waspinator: Waspinator not serve...Waspinator rules!!
Waspinator's moment didn't last, however, because Rattrap tricked him into knocking himself out when he was trying to carry Silverbolt
Following this, however, Waspinator played little role in the Beast Wars as the season continued, his only other prominent moment being when he was sent by Megatron to the location of the crashed Ark - only to be followed by Blackarachnia and inadvertently smashed to pieces by her modified stasis pod while she was arguing with Silverbolt.
[edit] Season Three
Waspinator spent much of the season partnered with Inferno and Quickstrike ("Ant-Bot and Two-Head"). He was briefly teamed up with the transmetal II clone of Dinobot, only to end up quickly shot by Cheetor after the young Maximal completed his own 'upgrade' into a transmetal II. Waspinator's status grew increasingly poor as time went on, to the extent that he was literally taken to pieces by the proto-human girl Una, who had been taught by Cheetor to go for the hinges when attacking robots. Throughout most of this series he was used as Predacon cannon fodder, while the slightly more powerful ones did more active combat.
In "Other Victories", Waspinator was Quickstrikes defender. But instead of defending his client he just point out what he did and that he'll like that he would be destroyed by Megatron. He admits that he likes being the defense because he thinks he wont get blown up all the time. Later that episode he was trapped by a tornado along with Inferno and Quickstrike, he replyed "At least this time Waspinator has company."
After the destruction of the Predacon Base, Inferno, Quickstrike and Waspinator were sent to establish a new base for the Predacons and discovered caves that were inhabited by a tribe of early humans. Just as the Predacons were about to engage the early humans in battle, Waspinator decided he was sick of the evil Predacon ways and of the constant physical abuse he was always receiving and quit in a furious and surprising rant.
"I said NO! Dragon-Bot command you, sub-commander Kiss-butt. Dragon-Bot not command Waspinator! Not any more! Waspinator sick of being evil! Sick of being Predacon! And Waspinator especially sick of getting blown to SCRAP ALL THE TIME! Soooooo, Waspinator quit! Hmmph! As of now! Which means Ant-Bot- and Two-Head- can just pucker their mandibles and plant big wet juicy one right on Waspinator's big . . . fat . . . STRIPY--" [boom!]
Interrupting Waspinator's tirade, Inferno and Quickstrike shot him and proceeded to fight the early humans. It is worth noting that this rant is the only time in the series that Waspinator ever referred to himself as “I”.
As the Beast Wars came to an end and the Maximals left for Cybertron, it was revealed that Waspinator stayed behind on Earth, living amongst a tribe of early humans and being worshipped as a god. He even got the last line of the series: “Waspinator happy at last!”.
Throughout the Beast Wars series, Waspinator was one of only three characters to last all three seasons without receiving some type of upgrade; the others being Rhinox and Inferno. Although in the toy line he did become a transmetal with the third mode of a jet, possibly a homage to Starscream, whose spark shared Waspinator's body briefly.
[edit] Beast Machines
Waspinator was captured by Megatron's Vehicon Drones and his spark was transferred into the Vehicon General Thrust in Beast Machines. During the series, it was revealed that, following the conclusion of the Beast Wars that the early humans got tired of Waspinator, despite having worshipped him as a deity, and forced him to leave (although he claimed he was tired of them and left because he missed Cybertron). How he got home afterwards was never revealed, though he did say "Took forever, but waaayyy worth it". Even writer Bob Skir mentioned in his website that "someone someday has to explain to me how he hitchhiked his way home..." [1] It is possible that he just flew under his own power and it took him so long to reach Cybertron that he arrived just prior to the Maximals exiting from transwarp space. [3]
Despite being under the service of Megatron once again, Waspinator actually liked being Thrust because "chick-bots dig brooding loner bit", as he put it (he was right in a sense: Blackarachnia began to develop a relationship with him, believing him to be Silverbolt, until discovering the truth about Jetstorm), and he wasn't scrapped nearly as much in his new body. Plus as a result of the Vehicon personality programming, as Thrust his previous personality and speech quirks were eliminated, as well as his cowardice. This is apparent when Thrust flatly told Megatron on one occasion that using the Sparks of Silverbolt and Rhinox was a bad idea, something the cowardly Waspinator never would have done.
With Cybertron's reformatting at the end of the series, Waspinator was reformatted into a surprisingly small technorganic wasp, but with the head of Thrust. “No, NO! Waspinator want glory, Waspinator want power! And what Waspinator get?! WASPINATOR NEVER GET WHAT WASPINATOR WANT!”. He was then swatted by Rattrap and sent spiraling away through the air. His final line in this series is a stark contrast to his last on Beast Wars. Bob Skir referred to this version of Waspinator as Thrustinator in the DVD commentary of the last episode.
[edit] Fun Publications
Beast Wars Second Galvatron, Megastorm and the technorganic Predacon Waspinator appeared together in the story Wreckers: Finale Part 2 by the Transformers Collectors Club in 2007. During the invasion of Cybertron by the Quintessons the Predacons worked together to ambush a Quintesson contingent commanded by Overseer Vashik. Vashnik's troops were caught in a pool of molten magma and destroyed.
[edit] 3H Enterprises
In the Transformers: Universe storyline Thrust would return in his Vehicon form as one of the many Transformers kidnapped by Unicron from alternate timelines. The original Waspinator also put in an appearance in the BotCon voice actor play.
When Rhinox's attempts to stop Unicron pulling victims from alternate realities resulted in two groups of dimensionally-displaced Autobots being marooned on frozen planetoids, Waspinator, on the side of good for once, was sent alongside Silverbolt and Rattrap to help. They ended up battling Unicron's minions alongside a crew of timelost Autobots (Bumblebee, Cosmos and Tracks) and the two groups of Autobots they had been sent to help (both from the RiD universes), and, with Rhinox's help, sent them back to their own times and realities.
[edit] Toys
- Beast Wars Waspinator
- The original Waspinator toy featured two different heads for his humanoid robot mode. One more human-like and another more insect-like. The insect one was featured in the show as his only head in robot mode. On his redeco, Buzzsaw, they utilized the human-like head to make the characters more distinctive.
- The original Waspinator toy was recolored as Buzz Saw, then remolded into Dirgegun in the Japanese Beast Wars II TV Show.
- An interesting note is that the original issue of Waspinator was composed with many ball and swivel joints that more than easily separated when little force was applied. All of these joints made him a little more show accurate than would be expected.
- Transmetal Waspinator
- In the toyline, Waspinator was a deadly and efficient aerial warrior, who ended up becoming a transmetal with a tertiary mode of a fighter-jet. His jet mode slightly resembled a Mirage 4000, a comparable aircraft to the F-15 which Starscream originally transformed into.
- Fox Kids Transmetal Waspinator
- A redeco of transmetal Waspinator, done in the colors of Beast Wars Buzzsaw, but oddly still called Waspinator.
- Transformers: Universe Waspinator (unreleased)
- There were plans to release a Transformers: Universe toy of Waspinator, a repaint of the transmetal Waspinator, part of a Halloweeen Horrorcons 2 pack, but the toy would never be released. However, Waspinator did appear in the 2004 Botcon voice actor play.
- Beast Wars 10th Anniversary Waspinator
- In 2005 the original Waspinator toy was repainted in more show accurate colors and re-released for the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars.
- Timelines Waspinator
- A toy of Waspinator in his pre-Beast War vehicle mode was released as a BotCon 2006 exclusive toy. This toy is a remold of Machine Wars Skywarp. He turned into a Saab Gripen jet. This was supposed to represent Waspinator on Cybertron before the Beast Wars.
[edit] Transformers: Animated
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Wasp | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | N/A |
| Sub-Group | Deluxe Vehicles |
| Alternate Modes | Cybertronian Car |
| Series | Transformers: Animated |
| Voiced by | Tom Kenny |
Waspinator, under the name "Wasp", made his debut on the episode "Autoboot Camp" as a former Elite Guard trainee and a rival of Bumblebee. His appearance appears to be a repaint of Bumblebee but with a different head. His vehicle mode is quite similar to Bumblebee's Cybertronian mode, and he has stingers similar to Bumblebee's, but more powerful, which is how he gets his short name. In flashbacks during the episode it is revealed that Bumblebee mistakenly believed Wasp to be a double agent working for Megatron, and had him arrested. In the present, Wasp escapes imprisonment, but is now completely deranged, seeking vengeance on Bumblebee. Also, his eye color and speech patterns now match that of his Beast Wars self. His alt-mode in the beginning of the episode appeared to be a futuristic green car based on the 1963 Corvette Stingray. Apparently, He, Bumblebee and the red Autobot with the same protoform mold as the two(Identified as Cliffjumper) could be identified as Autobot Clones, with two having similar heads, and one having the head of his Beast Wars predecessor, Waspinator.
